How I Just Missed the Final Table at Festa al Lago

We began day four of the $15k WPT Festa al Lago main event at Bellagio with 37 players remaining and 27 spots to be paid. I had ~500k going to 5/10k, which put me 14th in chips and slightly above average.

My table for the money bubble of the tournament included Chau Giang, Prahlad Friedman, Brandon Cantu, Mark Seif, Matt Glantz, and Tommy Vedes.

Another table with several million in combined winnings, and definitely a table that wasn't going to nit it up and be scared bubbling the tournament.

That is, except for our buddy Matt Glantz. Despite millions in earnings and the fact that he'd be playing cash in Bobby's Room if he weren't in the tournament, Matt looked like he was trying to get out of the "bottom 10" on Daniel Negreanu's "list."

Tap, tap, tap.

For those of you who missed it: Daniel, for some reason, decided he was going to compile a list of the players who'd played in the most WPT events and what their earnings per tournament were.

It was also somewhat vague and misleading in that it only told you how many WPT events the player has entered, but not the buy in amounts because they're not detailed on the WPT website. Therefore you can't tell if they were $3.5k, $5k, $10k, $15k, $25k, or even freeroll invitational events!

Now I really like Daniel and I enjoy some of his blogs, but I just don't think it's necessary to draw attention to the "big losers" in any game.

There are lots of reasons not to tap the glass on the people who really are fish, and they're pretty obvious. But it also makes great players like Glantz, who has incredible WSOP/EPT results, look bad as well.

The information is all available online to anyone who wanted to look anyway. It's just not necessary to draw attention to the bottom part of that list. But I digress ...

I spent most of the first level slipping to 300k, but got back to ~500k on the last hand of the level when I made kings full against Prahlad with K J after he flatted me preflop with what he claimed later was J-J after making a hero call on the river.

Glantz and Prahlad had a conversation about how well I had played the hand afterward, and Prahlad ended the conversation with "yep, kid's definitely a player."

It felt good hearing that from two players I have so much respect for. I already talked about Matt Glantz in my last blog, but I've been watching Prahlad crush online cash games since I was in my proverbial poker diapers.

I'd be grinding my $5 SNGs while I watched him stack fools for five-figure pots in the biggest online cash games that were running circa 2003.

Stick with it kid, you might just make it yet.

It was quite an honor, but I didn't really know what to say so I just pretended I wasn't listening to their conversation and kept my eye on the prize. =)

I ended up making a big laydown on the exact money bubble when I had raised with 10 10 in early position to 32k with about ~500k total. Chau moved in for 199k and I was planning to insta-call until Prahlad moved in over the top for 259k total.

I eventually folded and was relieved to see Prahlad show J J against Chau's A K, and Prahlad's hand held to eliminate Chau and bring us down to 27 players and in the money.

We redrew again, since it's Bellagio's policy to redraw after every 9 eliminations from 45 players down. My new table included Matt Glantz, Steve Brecher, Lee Markholt, Chris Bjorin, Kido Pham, Jason Burt, and Chris Ferguson.

I only played one big pot at this table, and it came when I'd raised with K J and Kido Pham flatted me with Q Q.

The flop came jack-high, and if he'd raised me on the flop I'd have been broke right there. But he was trying to give me rope to hang myself, and I managed not to bite. I checked behind the turn and river after betting the flop, and was pretty happy with the way I'd played it when he showed his hand.

We redrew again, and I was at a new table with Tommy Vedes, Kido Pham, Chris Bjorin, Shawn Cunix, and Freddy Deeb. I wasn't getting any hands or finding any good spots, and slipped to ~400k as the blinds rose to 10/20k and players were getting eliminated at a pretty quick pace.

Then I busted in a pretty awkward spot with 13 players left where I had raised under the gun with a 395k stack at 10/20k holding 10 10. Craig Crivello ended up flopping a set of threes, and with less than two times a pot bet left I wasn't able to get away from my hand.

But I played my A game or damn near it for four straight days, and I although it's disappointing to get so close to the end zone yet again and come up short I'm happy with my run in the tournament. I cashed for 40k and have been playing really well lately, live and online, and this heater is just warming up.

I took down the Lock Poker $33+rebuys tournament on Sunday night, which makes four wins and a 2nd place finish on the site in my last six or seven online sessions.

I also finished 2nd in the Stars $109+rebuys tournament on Monday night to my good friend Anthony "Beldar C" DeVita. I'd like to congratulate him on the win, and on recently getting married.

Fortunately he doesn't get much bragging rights out of this, since he was on such a heater at the final table that he began the heads up match with ~1,400,000 to my ~400,000. He played very well down the stretch and deserved the victory, despite being a true monkey at heart. =)

I fell a bit short this time with Festa, but I'm going to keep playing my best and plugging away. Today I'll be playing the $5k main event of the "some dinky little Caesars Palace tournament series" that I hope will have 100 players in it.

Caesars runs a lot of satellites and I've heard they even comp tournament seats to some of their biggest pit degens who don't even play poker, so it should still be worth showing up. Wish me luck!

Matt Stout